Since the loss of the Ekiti State governorship election by the All Progressive Congress few weeks ago, it appears Governor Ibikunle Amosun in Ogun State had entered into a new phase of political fits, and betraying his fears, anxieties, frustrations and desperation, became what the people of Ogun State now refer to as the ATM with universal pin numbers, making endless promises to anyone and everywhere.
He seems to be looking everywhere and at everyone for either support or as mortal enemies behind his potential political misfortune and capable of spelling his woes. He has suddenly woke up to a new vocation; another desperate drive for sympathy using the “crying baby” technique with which he secured electoral victory in 2011. But the tide had changed. Senator Amosun had lied one too many and the people had seen through the tissues of deceits. Even the sudden elevation of his predecessor in office to the ignoble arena as his albatros does not seem to catch the fancy of the citizens who have now become wiser; having themselves been failed by the Amosun led governments on many occasions with several unfulfilled promises.
The renewed and desperate attempt to reconstruct the monster of lies against Otunba Gbenga Daniel with which the Ibikunle Amosun government gained power Is now being processed in the realm of logic, as against sentiments. Sponsored piece are now being scrutinised and analysed from the point of creativity, objectivity, sincerity and truth which are the hallmarks of responsible journalism over sensationalism. It is only in the twilight zone of logic that one can find destruction, both of the other man and properties, as a means of achieving greatness. And this appear the only zone from which Governor Amosun can operate.
One would have thought Governor Amosun who had been privileged to govern Ogun State for over three years now would have woken up to the tedious tasks of responsible leadership to stop building his castle of a wall of sands. If after close to four years, and even after his loss of immunity, former Governor Gbenga Daniel still walks free in town and Amosun can still not procure justice for his supposed supporters allegedly killed, then this must be speaking some truth to his irresponsibility as a leader. Informed minds would want to know the frustration of a ‘leader’ who has the capacity to call for any file and even seek or order for the reconstruction of any to suit his purpose if he feels they are not satisfactory enough to bid his whims. This latest blackmail would not wash. The story the people of Ogun State henceforth want to hear is Amosun’s account of stewardship; not more of the broken record of an overplayed worn out discs of his phantom “killer squads” which many now know existed only in the warped imagination of depraved minds. If Senator Amosun was an underdog while contesting for power, can we still say that Governor Amosun remain a weakling and disadvantaged about getting justice?
By the latest resort to reconstruction and remix of old records using online news medium like the Sahara reporters, should we then conclude that Senator Amosun is admitting his frustration that the Truth Commission (with tincture of lies as its motive) which he set up ostensibly as a persecution machine had failed him since it could not return any verdict of guilt on the former governor?
When we talk of the rightness of going to war (ius ad bellum), we should also be mindful of the best practices, the right behaviour and conduct in a war situation (ius in bello). Mr. Ibikunle Amosun looks like one failing all civil conducts in political battles. There is too much desperation for power here; nothing was too big or small, too sacred or mundane for him to desecrate. In OGD’s case, Amosun suffers some psychological trauma which can best be simply defined as Complex.
Is it not logical, and interesting that all the people paraded were apologists of ACN, and the ones who worked within the Daniel government for Ibikunle Amosun. The last time I checked, Tunde Oladunjoye, a former local government chairman and one of those who became so vocal about and against the Daniel administration; and behind the persecutors petitions to the EFCC had been compensated with a board appointment on the Governing Council of the Tai Solarin University of Education (is this not Ironic and incidental that this same university was founded by Otunba Gbenga Daniel? same they all conspired to vilify and demonise). I am aware the former governor already took Wale Adedayo to court for libel on some of the allegations contained in his book. Why are they in a hurry to rewrite history all too sudden? In all of these, Governor Amosun still carry a moral burden; why has he refused to prosecute those allegedly arrested in connection with the murder of late Dipo Dina? What could the government government be trying to cover up on the Dipo Dina’s case that the renaming of the Gateway International Stadium, Ijebu Ode which had already been named after Otunba Mike Adenuga (another project of the Otunba Gbenga Daniel’s administration) became the first project of the new government as soon as it was sworn in? These are some of the questions the people of Ogun State want answers to. Why has the current government been avoiding this very sensitive issues like a plague, in spite of the much noise and controversies it has generated in the polity. Ogun State people need to hear from their governor; they did not envisage a government that won’t be talking to them.
Amosun appears like that unfamiliar breeze that blows into the political firmament of Ogun State. For petty people like him, they blame every of their failures on others, hence, whatever inadequacies Amosun finds in himself and his incapacity in the task of political administration, the blame must fall on somebody or someone else. He mirrors his inadequacy and under achievements in someone he shares a morbid fear is superior to him. This is one of the signs of failed people.
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Steve Oliyide was Special Assistant Information and Strategy to Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Governor of Ogun State (2003-2011). He writes from Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria.
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After reading the author’s biography, I immediately discarded his biased opinion. Governor Amosun has been ten times more effective in his transformation of Ogun state than Gbenga Daniel was, or will ever be